Wish you Happy New Year, 2015.

–RD

Every day there are thousands of flights carrying passengers around the globe taking off and landing safely. That means we have developed a highly sophisticated, reliable and excellent mechanism to travel by air. This great achievement by our man kind is not achieved in a year or two nor without any failures. We know every great achievement has shortcomings in the development stages and even after that. Aviation industry is considered one of the safest industries in the world today. However year 2014 was not good for few flights. Striving for a full six sigma didn’t help much on improving the safety in the airline industry. Safety and functionality of any instrument can be tested in a predictable environment and most of the times in repeatable type of situations. Achieving a safety of 99.99966% defect-free rate is an amazing achievement in the aviation industry. However when we hear flights carrying hundreds of people disappear from the sky with no clue on where they fell on the earth is scary enough to think about the uncertainty in the air.

Leaving the year 2014 with these incidents makes me think that we are still infants in the eyes of the Mother nature. We have technology, bright minds and great companies building and running these flights. But still we don’t have any control on what will happen up in the air and cannot compete with the forces of the nature. Hopefully in the near future we will have some backup plans for these kinds of situations or some helpful weather predictions in the sky when a flight takes off from the runway.

Every single life on this mother earth has a purpose and losing those precious souls for no good reason is not what mother nature wants. We see a lot of hate and killing around us now a days. It is confusing sometimes to understand if we are progressing forward or backward on this earth!!!

We all need to think positively and be optimistic about the future, knowing that every turn in our life has pleasant and unpleasant surprises waiting for us. Hope year 2015 brings more peace and happiness in this complex world!!! and mother nature is the best judge of all. She knows exactly how to take care our mankind…

Our human race is constantly evolving, and our lifetime is a minute part of that. We build our experiences based on our previous experiences. Good experience or bad experience, they equally bring some value to our existence. We gain every experience by a change, within us and outside of our control. Overtime, changes in our body physically bring value to our emotions. Some people express these emotions pleasantly and some not. Overall, it is important to know why, how and where these changes happened and how we dealt with it. That is why people write books, and we read them to learn how to cope with changes based on what others around us felt and dealt with those changes.

Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.

–Barack Obama

If all changes have the potential to bring good to all of us, can we live happily for ever? No, I guess not. We will not be able to bear that much happiness in this world! (Really!). The change happens no matter what the result is. It is a natural way of evolution to bring good in this world.

Change is inevitable and without change, we cannot survive in this world. Without a change, we will not grow. Change brings inventions, and we move towards a higher goal. Change brings new things into our life. Regardless of who we are and where we live, not all are immune to change. Resisting a natural change is a futile act. We are part of the change. However, we can influence a change to some degree in some places. We can influence our family to join a regular exercise program, that will in turn make our aging process a little of pain free. The change of aging is a never-ending process and we can mitigate. It is the same with any other change.

For the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: ‘If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?’ And whenever the answer has been ‘No’ for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs’ 2005 Stanford Commencement Address

There are many types of transitions in our life. Every change start with an end of another change and the new change will have an end. It is an endless change process. Transition is part of the life, and every change has a beginning and an end; we just have to understand the impact and adapt to the changes and fight for the natural progression of life.

Nothing in the world is permanent, and we’re foolish when we ask anything to last, but surely we’re still more foolish not to take delight in it while we have it. If change is of the essence of existence one would have thought it only sensible to make it the premise of our philosophy.W. Somerset Maugham (1874 – 1965), The Razor’s Edge, 1943

It is good to know sometimes that not all changes happened in our life are painful. Reflecting honestly on our past and recognizing those changes that shaped our future is useful to face changes in the future and live strongly to face the unexpected changes.

As part of my MS Program, yesterday I attended the first class of “Interpersonal and Leadership Skills” course, which runs for next 10 weeks.
It is really fascinating to learn about leadership and thoroughly understand how leaders actually think and lead. I am also super excited to be part of this class which is run by Professor, Dr.Brent French who is also a US Air Force Reserve Colonel.

In this post I wanted to capture my questions and basic understanding of what leadership is. This is not a post that teach about leadership. It is about simply looking in to what I think about leadership and hopefully I will write another post with more clarity on this topic once I complete this course.

I am also very happy for that now I don’t have to think a lot to find topics for my blogging!!! Reading a lot of books for this course and I am sure that will keep me busy for next 3 months.

So,What is leadership?
Do we really need to understand who is a leader and what is leadership?
Why do we care?
Why do we have this much of literature to understand leadership and its various styles?
Does this literature created to create better followers? Some times I think about that seriously!!!
Can we teach leadership to lead people?
What about those Born leaders? Lincoln and Obama were not taught to be leaders? They chose to become leaders? Isn’t it true!
Does circumstances clearly manipulate people whether they can become leaders or not?
Leaders who became leaders as part of a big transformation event are still called leaders or just acted because there is no other way to survive other than leading people?
What level of psychology we need to know to understand a leader and his/her style of leadership?
If we understand can we teach how to be a leader like that? But every person is different and how can we expect one person to follow a certain style?
Can we teach leadership? If yes, how easy it is to teach kids and Adults.
Can we teach adults to become leaders?….
Can we identify Narcissistic leadership easily?
I always think of a leader as someone who has exceptional qualities and skills and is fearless to face the adversities. Does all leaders have these qualities?

A real leader needs to have two qualities, one of the head and the other of the heart – Sensibility and Sensitivity.

Every situation I see either that at home or office need some kind of direction or to be lead by some one. Some times my wife takes the leadership of running the house and I take the leadership of taking care of kids education.
At office I see it as a structured and hierarchical leadership. I see leadership as a quality in person /or group of people who can lead people to achieve a common worthwhile achievable goal in an encouraging and motivating environment.

I believe some people are born leaders. I interacted with some leaders with whom working was a pleasure in a trusted relationship. Again this can be a perception based on my background and how I want to be lead by someone who is a leader. I think it is natural that people look for a leader if they cannot do something that a leader can by gathering a group of people.

Influential leaders show sympathy and care and have a great sense of self respect, self control and responsibility for the growth of their followers. Also it is true that some leaders are only interested to command people for personal satisfaction or other ulterior motives.

Leaders should know what their followers are expecting from them and adjust their path accordingly. And at the same time leaders should be clear in their directions to followers, about what they are thinking and expecting from the group. Followers are not “mind readers”, it is the responsibility of leaders to understand the group pulse and needs of followers and lead them efficiently.

Ethics is part of the leadership role. I don’t think any leader would continue to be a leader without proving to his followers that his intentions are good and live with high moral values.

Learning about leadership probably gives us a chance to understand how this society is working, where we are living or working and adjust ourselves to prepare for the future. It doesn’t matter whether we follow a certain leader or not, we always need to follow a leading principle which morally, ethically makes sense and which works for the betterment of our lives, family and society.

It has been a while I was planning to write a post regarding what I learned how non native English speakers use English in USA, especially people who came from India, like me. As mentioned in this article, “Everyone speaks English differently, especially if it is not your first language”.
There are different accents in USA in addition to what non native English speakers have. The difference is accent and dialect. Non native English speakers have an accent not that much of specific dialect, which we usually find in Texan English and New York English.

Language is a medium of expression and enable us to be part of a society.
Languages have different variations, sign language, programming language, animal language and languages that we all speak around the world, hundreds for sure!!!!

It is easy to express if you feel happy, simply smile. But the other person has to be there to see your smile. Yes, yes, I know you can use face time to do that. So why do we need to speak, because we are social animals and we are hard wired to talk?

By the way we have to agree, because we are social animals we would like to communicate by speaking with a certain accent to identify ourselves with a specific social class. That brings us to the important point of this post, English as a Second language Phobia.

In the event the phobia cannot be avoided entirely, the sufferer will endure the situation or object with marked distress and significant interference in social or occupational activities.

I live in USA and this country is the best place in the world for all kinds of things to observe, including ourselves, while speaking in English. It’s kind of a lab with endless possibilities to watch and learn many important things. It is a home of global languages. Unless you are born and brought up here in USA, most of the people whose primary language is NOT ENGLISH, suffers with some kind of distress and interference, when they need to communicate purely in English with native English speakers. The problem with “ESL” people is, they have to first think in their native language and translate that in to English and then speak. That’s a lot of processing, and unfortunately for many, that processing itself doesn’t work efficiently.

Over the years, say 10 to 15 years, after he/she arrives in USA a non native English speaking person (exclude people graduated from English medium schools and people who’s families are well settled and could use English regularly back in their native countries) get to understand the lyrics of an American English song clearly and most importantly in the context of American society. If you think 10 years is long time to reach that stage then you are not that part of the population who had the English speaking phobia. You are lucky !!

It is not that English is a complex language, it is the matter of exposure to usage. Many people from India are very good in writing English essays and other stuff, but when it comes to the point of general conversation they have to patch sentences and words from past conversations or movies they watched (that’s a little exaggerated, I know!!!). The thickness in the pronunciation clearly shows that they are still thinking in their native language and speaking in English by translating it on the fly. However, in my observation they speak fluently in English if they are talking to native English speaking Americans. But that flow comes to a grinding halt when they start conversing with other non native English speakers. (it is just my observation….!!!). Is it because we don’t expect our own people speak fluent English or it just happens…. hmm. I couldn’t quite get it.

Now the good part here is most non native English speaking people learn to speak fluently in English by engaging conversations with their American born kids. There you go. Free practice at home.. But you need to wait at least 5 to 6 years to have your first baby to go to day care and start bringing that American accent back home to practice. However those people are lucky who talk and talk every day with Americans in the grocery stores and offices.
If you are an Indian software programmer or some one in the IT from India, you have too many options to learn and speak English. But the problem is you are within your social group, obviously Indians, right! Well that is not much helpful isn’t it?. It is good for Indian MS students. You know they have no restrictions, and they just become Americans the moment they land in USA. Remember, “Hey Dude, whassup??” language. Interestingly they are more Americanized than regular American students sometimes surpassing in all aspects!!!!
Well there are many things I observed in my last 13 years of living in USA, but still don’t get to speak like an American with 100% American English. I don’t think that is bad or anything like that. But once you have a feeling of trying to become one of them and not able to do so efficiently, it puts some feeling inside and makes you feel like something is dragging your leg to show your full talent in a group of people.
This could keep us, a lot of us (Non Native English Speakers) not to utilize our original talent fully, because language could have become a big barrier. However, I overcame this sense of feeling bad of not speaking in American English language long time back by using simple and plain English and using some easy going American words, like “I am running late”!!!!
ESL situation should not become a burden, instead it should give an opportunity to grow and learn something new everyday. The only remedy is to practice a lot even though you know there will be mistakes in while doing so. Grammar is not a big deal and I don’t really mind writing with grammar mistakes as long as I am using plain and simple English to convey my message.

Well, “right off the bat” this is one my longest posts and I was one of those people who gone “bonkers”, when they heard saying some body bought a “Beemer”!!

We all love New Year and feel like we are getting another chance to do things better than last year. Yes , we are optimistic and we hope for the best to happen, again. 2012 was a good year overall but all those great achievements were overshadowed by brutal and senseless killings at Sandy Hook elementary school, effects of killer storm Sandy and gruesome, shameful gang-rape incident in India. Bad incidents does happen every year but when we feel we could stop those, we as a society feel and carry guilt in our hearts in to a New Year, hoping some how we can move on and take measures to stop these incidents to happen again.

For victims and their families lives have changed forever. They will lead a painful life with those unforgettable memories of their loved ones.

I sincerely pray to God to give courage and ray of hope for those victims and their families and wish them a bright and peaceful new year 2013 and may our society take actions to stop these crimes against kids and innocent people.

I have worked in the software development world for over 15 years and saw various levels of management headaches in dealing with reaching milestones in a project. It could be an issue with delivering the agreed feature on a certain date or simply having problems in tracking where we are in the development cycle. Waterfall development life cycle is well adopted over the years and it is a natural fit for many software/application development project. However, it is also true that there are many gaps in achieving the efficiency from the team to complete the project.

We all know that it is the human common nature to delay or postpone the work until it becomes really important to complete. Well you may not be that kind of guy 🙂 but there is a general consensus in the world that people procrastinate for “NO REASON”. Yes for no reason. They just don’t know. May be it is a habit!

So somebody had to come up with a clever way of making people work more efficient way by not making them feel that they are under constant tracking and make that as a widely adopted process. You may call it Agile, Iterative, Incremental or for that matter the SCRUM. This post doesn’t make negative or positive statements about the scrum practice, but it highlights the theme behind how this whole process is designed. (well that’s my understanding, I may be wrong. If you think otherwise please share your opinion(s). )

As I said in the beginning, procrastination costs tens and thousands of dollars to any size of the project. But it is less visible in manufacturing and other field based projects. Why, because workers have a set of steps and do constant revision of those steps to achieve better results in quality, output and so on and so forth. However software development is a field where one cannot envision the same kind of tracking mechanism like it does in a plant. Software workers / professionals / developers do work on something that include analysis, development, test and other time consuming tasks, like meetings (you know what I mean!). So now you ask where does the scrum practice help to handle the procrastination. Well it is built right in to the process. You will never know how it is dealing with it.

If you ever worked in a project that use scrum process for agile software development , you might remember those “standup meetings” (yes, you will stand up in a meeting !). Now you may also remember what happens in those meetings. You tell what you did yesterday and what you are going to do today and tell the group if there are any impediments. That will cover the procrastination, you don’t have to think too much about the other things. But for more insight visit this page … SRUM

Why I think SCRUM is a prescription for Project procrastination?
If we track our progress everyday and know what is happening today and let the team know that who is causing the problem (those impediments , you know!) you are not only working effectively you are making others to work with the group if they are procrastinating. And those weekly reviews, I must say, the best way to pull people out of their comfort zone to perform above average. Teams can do the same work in a month, why because the demo will be at the end of the month. But what if you say if the demo is tomorrow? Obviously , team will come with some innovative way to complete the work to do the demo.

So ultimately the underlying truth is a deadline, a planned demo early in the stage of the project, recognition of work and last but not the least the visibility of work, reduce the Project procrastination and ultimately project’s health will improve over time.

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I thought of doing something special today, which is obviously a day to remember. 12/12/12, December,12,2012, 2012-12-12 and so on…..
Then I decided to post some thing today on my blog just to record this day.

A day that comes once in 100 years… amazing feeling about it..We will not be there next time when this day comes..weird feeling !!!!

Is there any person celebrating his/her birthday on this special day… Yes…Here you go…